Freeze!
by subdivided
Summary: Shorts, 100-1000 words each, unrelated. These were originally livejournal challenges but are now sort of contextless and random. Newest addition: This is My Ultimate Attack!
1. Default Chapter

Title: Tell Him You Aren't Interested  
Author: subdivided

Disclaimer: Bleach doesn't belong to me

Notes: Originally written for the **chainoffics** livejournal community (imagine there are underscores between those words). Little Ishida!

* * *

"I don't think you know what you're getting into, Uryuu," his father told him. "What your grandfather does isn't a a game. I don't want you seeing him anymore- tell him you aren't interested." The lines around his father's eyes deepened when he frowned. He looked stern and distant and only a little undignified, slouched over the table eating lo mein directly out of the carton. 

"Yes, father, I know," Ishida replied. He stabbed at his own take-out dinner with family-heirloom ivory chopsticks, carefully avoiding his father's eyes. "I _know_ that, because stupid kids' games aren't anywhere near as fun," is what he thought but didn't say. They passed the rest of the meal in silence.

The next day found Ishida sitting in a tree, swinging his legs and trying not to whistle. It was recess and he could hear the uneven noise of the rest of his class through the trees, so faint it was almost indistiguishable. His classmates were confined to the playground; Ishida was above monkey bars and beyond asphalt hopscotch.

An old man dressed all in white sat in the tree across from him, squinting into the distance. "Wouldn't you rather join your friends, Uryuu?" he asked, after a while.

"No," Ishida told him. He swung his legs a little higher. "Tell me a story, Grandpa? The one about the Hollow with the jelly-fish eyes."

His grandfather smiled. "When I was about your age," he said, "I was already in training to become a Quincy. There were quite a few of us in those days, and we often worked in pairs. One day, when I was walking with my grandfather, I thought I heard someone screaming. My grandfather was going a little deaf, you see, and so…"

"You just ran off alone to fight the Hollow?" Ishida asked, even though he already knew the answer by heart. "That was really dumb, grandpa."

"Yes, I suppose it was," he grandfather said, eyes laughing. "I got there just in time see a God of Death fall before it…"

This was one of his favorite stories. Ishida sat quietly in his ash tree, trying his best to be nonchalant. Occasionally he'd interrupt, acerbic comments to let his grandfather know he was listening.

_'Tell him you aren't interested.'_

Which was fine, Ishida thought, except he _was_. Kickball had nothing on this.


	2. This is My Ultimate Attack!

Title: This is My Ultimate Attack!  
Author: subdivided

Disclaimer: BLEACH still isn't mine.

Notes: Another one for **chainoffics **(insert underscores). All minor characters are original.

* * *

This round was his. Tenth Division member Oohana Kesuke raised his Soul-Cutter sword in preparation for the final blow; his teammates cringed. 

"Put forth your power in ten directions, and shatter completely the strength of my enemy! Reverberate, KarajuntalesukaAAHHH!"

Oohana's face as he fell was stupid with disbelief - almost as stupid as his opponent's. Ichigo rose from where he was crouched below, um. Above Oohana. He spared one bloody hand to wipe at the blood over his eyes before returning it to his sword. His expression was shifting from dumfounded to suspicious: it shouldn't have been that easy?

For whole seconds no one moved. Ichigo thought the shinigami crowded around him looked like idiotic fish, their jaws working without sound or purpose as they _slowly_ recovered from the devastation that hadn't befallen them. Third seat Takayo Jun was the first to regain his senses. He stepped forward, clearing his throat.

"It's unfortunate, isn't it? That my junior teammate's sword has such a long name." Takayo nodded regretfully in the direction of Oohana's body. "I'm afraid this sort of thing happens to him all the time."

"Really," Ichigo said. He tried not to let the ache in his lungs show in his voice. "He couldn't have given the thing a nickname?"

"No, I'm afraid not. If, however, you'd like face an opponent without that particular problem…"

"Whenever you're ready," Ichigo said. Despite everything, his grin was genuine.


End file.
